Airship: Kingdoms Adrift News

Airship: Kingdoms Adrift is a game that takes players on a thrilling journey through the skies. Our team of artists has put a lot of effort into creating a world that players would immerse and engage into. In this dev diary, our artists give us a closer look at the art and design elements that went into making this game.

When designing the world of AKA, we paid close attention to the atmosphere and mood that is familiar, yet different. We wanted to establish a sense of adventure and exploration within the world, while also incorporating a bit of mystery and danger. We wanted these elements to feel realistic, yet also convey a sense of fantasy though grounded in realism. So we spent a lot of time researching and studying various types of ships and landscapes to create a believable design that blended both realism and fantasy well.

The concept art of Silberblum HQ

One of the most enjoyable things we did while working on Airship: Kingdoms Adrift was designing the airships. It was a fun and very challenging process that required extensive research and development. We took great pride in seeing our designs come to life in 3D models and flying around in the game. Seeing each airship we designed in a fight was an incredibly rewarding experience.



Finally, we wanted to highlight the importance of storytelling in Airship: Kingdoms Adrift. The art and design elements of the game are only as good as the story they're telling. We worked hard to ensure that our designs and artwork supported the narrative, as it was a crucial part of creating an immersive and engaging world. We believe that the story is just as important as the artwork in creating an unforgettable gaming experience.



We worked collaboratively as a team, carefully crafting each element of the game to ensure that it fits together seamlessly. We believe that our efforts have resulted in a game that is both visually stunning and narratively engaging, and we hope that you will enjoy exploring this world as much as we enjoyed creating it.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1597310/Airship_Kingdoms_Adrift/

Exciting news!

Airship: Kingdoms Adrift will be joining PAX East at Boston Convention & Exhibition Center from March 23rd to 26th.

If you're at the event, be sure to stop by the Freedom booth (#19103), where we'll have a permanent setup for Airship: Kingdoms Adrift. You'll have the chance to get an exclusive look at the game and meet our Freedom team, who will be on hand to answer any questions you may have.

But if you can't make it to PAX East, don't worry! You can still experience the thrill of Airship: Kingdoms Adrift by trying out our demo on Steam which will be back again very soon!

For more info about PAX East, check out the link below.
https://east.paxsite.com

Be sure to stop by our booth and say hello to our team.
See you at PAX East!

Greetings, Skyfarer!

For today’s Dev Diary, we will look into one of the important features of Airship: Kingdoms Adrift, which is the AI. In Kingdoms Adrift, players engage in thrilling airship battles high in the skies. The gameplay mechanics involve controlling and maneuvering airships in strategic combat scenarios. To ensure a challenging and engaging experience for players, the AI system plays a crucial role in creating dynamic and adaptable opponents. Without the AI's decision-making capabilities, the game could quickly become dull and predictable.. Our dev team had to design an AI system that could adapt to any player's actions and change tactics accordingly, while still offering an enjoyable experience.

Airships in Kingdoms Adrift features many parameters such as firepower, supply, morale, and more. The AI is designed to acknowledge these parameters and adjust their behavior accordingly. For example, when the crew is lost or the ship is damaged, the AI will choose to adopt new tactics accordingly. We also have different behavior patterns that were set up for each airship and encounter to match characters’ personalities. For instance, some may be scared and flee when taking certain damage, while some may be bloodthirsty and keep fighting until the very end.



To make sure that each AI is unique, we researched real ship combat and adjust it to match the logic of 2D space in the sky. Simulating angle of approach, ship direction, navigation, and more. The engagement angle to come towards each opponent, their attack range, and more all depend on the airship's characteristics. The AI needs to calculate the best position and the specific range in order to choose an angle of attack.

Developing the physics for AI was the most challenging aspect of the game. To determine the point we wanted the AI's ship to go, we had to calculate a precise position for it to stop, taking into account the inertia. Initially, it was just a forward and backward direction, but when we added more directions, it added more calculations. Tho this may look very simple in the game, but this process took months to develop until it was stable.



Then we have another great challenge which is creating a decision-making algorithm for AI. The AI needs to make a decision to turn and avoid depending on situations and obstacles on their path. So it was a crucial process for us to observe its behavior and fine-tune it until it reached a satisfying outcome and behaved sensibly. We had to observe many cases of the AI's reaction toward dynamic objects and teach AI to acknowledge it and learn how to avoid.

Overall, developing the AI system for Airship: Kingdoms Adrift was a challenging but rewarding process. We wanted to ensure that the battles were challenging for players and that the AI had the adaptive ability to respond to any situation, keeping the game interesting. We hope that players will enjoy our airship combat gameplay and the challenging AI we have developed, as they are an integral part of the skyfaring experience and allow players to seamlessly immerse themselves into the world.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1597310/Airship_Kingdoms_Adrift/

Greetings, skyfarers!

I’m Jay, the creator of Airship: Kingdoms Adrift. Today, we're excited to share with you some insights into the development of Airship: Kingdoms Adrift and the inspiration behind it.

Let’s start with the beginning of this project.
When I joined the game development industry, my goal was to create something lasting that leaves an impact on players. So, when I finally had the chance, I started working on Airship. The concept of the game was inspired by my lifelong fascination with flying machines and fantasy worlds, as seen in the works of Hayao Miyazaki and other artists.

The creation of Airship started back while I got bored at work in 2012 with a grid system design and airship drawings. However, the development took a detour and I picked it up again in 2018. We started with a 2D top-down version, but it wasn't immersive enough, so we changed to 3D rendering. Despite all the changes, the core gameplay mechanics have remained the same throughout development.

A sketch design of airships and their size, circa 2018

One of the biggest challenges we faced was the blend of different genres and gameplay elements. We had to solve the contradictions arising from these combinations, and one of the biggest challenges was choosing to isolate battles from the rest of the air traffic. This led us to develop the Encounter System, which has been the focus of most of our engineering efforts.

What sets Airship apart from other games in the genre is the mechanical depth of the gameplay and the presentation of the world through items, quests, stories, and characters. We aimed to create a strong cohesion that ties all the mechanics together to provide players with an immersive world Our goal for the complete version of the game is simple: to have the audience and community love it enough for us to keep expanding the world for a long time. We hope to expand the richness of the world, add more places, and change in-game technology over time.

The early version of the port system and UI, circa 2019

If there were no limitations, we would create a whole world of Airship, a large simulation where world events take place and evolve along with the players. We hope to bring players closer to the daily life of the people in Spheara and witness high-stakes battles between gigantic airships from their own perspective aboard their own ship decks.

Lastly, we're most excited for players to experience the immersion and cohesion of gameplay, world, and all bits and pieces. The idea is to get lost in the world, take on more things to do, more places to explore, and more mysteries to solve. To be a part of the world itself, to live in it - that's the experience we created Airship: Kingdoms Adrift to present.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/1597310/Airship_Kingdoms_Adrift/

Attention, skyfarer!

[h3]Sign-ups for Airship: Kingdoms Adrift playtesting is now open! [/h3]

As a playtester, you will have the opportunity to be among the first to experience the game and provide valuable feedback to help us shape its development. Not only will you get an exclusive sneak peek at the game, but you will also have the chance to make a real impact on its final outcome. If you're a fan of airship exploration, adventure, strategy, and resource management, this is the perfect opportunity for you!

How to sign-up:
1. Join our Discord server: https://discord.com/invite/BVcgwY6AM4
2. Go to 🔑︱get-playtest-key channel and submit the sign-up form
3. Waiting for sign-up request approval
4. Received the key
5. Enjoy the playtest!

Moreover, you will earn points for every feedback and bug report during the playtesting session, which can be used to redeem rewards, including exclusive DLC, and more!

Access to Playtest will last until 1 month before the release.
Please note that the Steam key received for the playtest session cannot be redeemed for the full version of the game, and the key will be disabled after the playtest session has ended.

We look forward to welcoming you to our playtest and embarking on this exciting journey together!

Good wind and Great fortune
The Airship: Kingdoms Adrift team